


View from the Top: The Power Pair That Shook the Sports World

by MadameFolie



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fashion & Couture, M/M, Magazine Interview, No actual designers were harmed in the making of this fic, photoshoot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 01:51:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9360296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadameFolie/pseuds/MadameFolie
Summary: A Vanity Fair interview exclusive! At home with international figure skating superstars Yuuri Katsuki and Viktor Nikiforov.





	

**Author's Note:**

> (AKA, this was a thiny-veiled excuse to write the sexy photoshoot I don't have the skills to draw.)

_[Story spread: Yuuri Katsuki splayed out across settee in ensemble from Homme de Raison 2017 Spring collection. Silver medal resting against Yuuri's lips. Viktor Nikiforov seated on floor with head resting on Yuuri's knee. Ensemble from von Burgruinen collection "Submission". Materials: velvet for draped fabrics, wrought iron gate backdrop. Silver elements coordinated to match medal.]_

 

 

The St. Petersburg apartment that Yuuri Katsuki and Viktor Nikiforov share is where they prefer to receive media inquiries.

 

"Makkachin gets lonely when we're on the road," Victor explains over hot tea. He sits with his fingers curled into the fur of the 15-year-old poodle. So he and Yuuri take their home comforts when they can. It seems a strange counterpoint to Yuuri's well-known preference for privacy -- and yet it's all too natural for a pair who have made their names astonishing the world time and time again. Within their own home they operate like pieces of the same machine, slotting organically into each other's gears. Yuuri, the son of traditional hoteliers from Kyushu, is a consummate host. Before the interview he sets out a spread with every imaginable variety of tea and garnish. (Yuuri, for the curious, takes his with cream; Viktor, cream and an ample amount of sugar.) Viktor fields the questions.

 

_[INSET GRAPHIC: Viktor, Yuuri, and Makkachin in their St. Petersburg home.]_

 

Interview aside, it's a typical Sunday for the two of them. Practice is a must, of course, Yuuri explains. Every morning starts with a warmup run and time logged at the rink and Sundays are no exception. "You can almost feel the leftover energy start to build up if you miss a day of practice. You have to keep a balance, you know?" Yuuri confides that it's the same for Viktor as well -- even during his brief retreat from competition. "That routine becomes a part of you." On a rack beside the door sit three umbrellas, several shoes, a leash, and two loaded gym bags.

 

The rack itself makes for quite the conversation piece: it's black with square nail heads running down the posts, an incongruity in the soft, airy space. There's a story there as well. Viktor tells of its origin as a gift from fellow athlete Yuri Plisetsky. He regularly sends them souvenirs from his travels. Yuuri produces a set of tiger-striped mugs from the cabinet and a bookend shaped like a snarling sea beast.

 

"I've been told our apartment is...." Yuuri looks to Viktor thoughtfully. "What was the word?"

 

"Basic," Viktor supplies. "He said we decorate 'like a bunch of basic assholes'. I think it was because of the reclaimed wood." Viktor points out the wood elements in the kitchen. "It was prefabricated! What can I say?"

 

No part of the apartment is off limits, so long as tours are conducted on their terms. More reporters have asked to look inside their cabinets than one might think.

 

"If you want to know what moisturizer I use, you can always just ask me," Viktor offers with a cheerful wink. Historically speaking, he has always been comfortable sharing personal information with the press.

 

"You don't want to know, it's so expensive I want to cry every time he opens the jar. I think it's made with pieces of real unicorn."

 

"It's excellent for your feet after practice."

 

Yuuri buries his face in his hands.

 

 

_[INSET GRAPHIC: Viktor applying moisturizer to the photographer's nose.]_

 

 

The sound system in the living room is appropriately impressive. Modern speakers flank both a CD changer and a digital music player port. By Yuuri's admission, they use it more than any other entertainment system in the house. Mostly it's for practicing their routines and learning the music. Viktor switches on the CD changer and begins to play a song.

 

"I was thinking of using this one for my next short program," he says. It's an old favorite of his former coach, Yakov Feltsman. "He always used to listen to this record when I was younger. Sometimes I would go over to see him and Lilia [Baranovskaya, former Bolshoi Ballet principal dancer and ex-wife of Feltsman] on Sundays. Lilia had very Parisian tastes, so they liked to make coffee in the afternoon. But they always had tea for me." The music crackles, as if recorded off of an even older recording. "I'd like to keep the distortion, it has a nice, antique sound to it. You know, Yakov still has the vinyl. I think he must have been born an old man." Further details of the season's program, however, remain under wraps: "I'd like that to be a surprise."

 

Naturally. Of his sudden return to competition, though, Viktor has equally scant information:

 

"It really isn't very complicated. It is simply that I love the ice, that is all." When asked of his worries competing against his own coach and fiance, Yuuri smiles mischievously.

 

"Of course I'm worried," he says. "Viktor's got a new world record to beat. It's an awful lot of pressure."

 

 

_[DUAL PAGE LAYOUT: UPPER IMAGE, closeup of Yuuri Katsuki's teeth pressing into his medal; LOWER IMAGE, closeup of Viktor Nikiforov's parted lips. Cosmetics provided by Maison Maysān, 'Midnight' line.]_

 

 

As for what lies ahead, they are happy to share over fresh helpings of tea.

 

"It's a little scary," Yuuri admits. "But it's thrilling, too. I don't think we'll ever really leave the ice. Which helps. There's always coaching, I guess." This he says with a sidelong glance at Viktor and a laugh in his voice. "And other kinds of performances. Viktor has actually been doing some thinking about development workshops."

 

Viktor clasps his hand over Yuuri's on the table.

 

"The credit for the idea is all Yuuri's. He's such a brilliant performer. I tried to ask him to lead a panel on musical interpretation and acting." Yuuri protests.

 

"Viktor--"

 

"Isn't he, though? I'm excited to learn from him." He pauses to bring Yuuri's knuckles to his lips for a kiss before turning back to the conversation. "Wouldn't it be fun?"

 

One can't disagree. On the 2016 competition circuit, Yuuri Katuski rocketed to public acclaim with dizzying force for his masterful performances. His short program 'On Love: Eros' showcased his talents for owning his themes and for imbuing his routines with a visceral undercurrent; his free program 'Yuri on Ice' revealed an ability to mine into deep emotional foundations for his work.

 

 

_[INSET GRAPHIC: Yuuri blows a kiss in his 2016 program 'On Love: Eros'.]_

 

 

So has he considered acting? It isn't off the table. Yuuri confides that he has been contacted for walk-on roles in various dramas, both at home and abroad. It would be surreal, though. His mother is a professed fan of many of them.

 

"It'd be so embarrassing to know people back home are watching. At least it'd be easy. I think the English language ones should be okay, too. But I've also been asked to do some in Russian!"

 

"It's a period drama," Viktor supplies. "Set in the 19th century. He'd be cast as a Japanese scholar traveling abroad to learn Western medicine."

 

"I'd probably have to do the lines phonetically."

 

"And look stunning in court dress!" He turns to the cameraman to excitedly mouth: "Right?"

 

 

_[INSET GRAPHIC: Viktor shows the interview team the design sketches for upcoming 2018 TV series 'Sunset Empire'.]_

 

 

Viktor, too, will appear -- in a bit part as an orchestra conductor.

 

 

_[FULL PAGE IMAGE: Viktor Nikiforov in 'Submission' ensemble kneeling with legs spread and forearms bound over head by black skate laces, Yuuri in Homme de Raison Winter 2016 ensemble standing behind Viktor, holding the ends in fist. Right hand gripping Viktor's hair.]_

 

 

"I'd say there's definitely demand for the workshops and development seminars," Viktor remarks. "It really adds a whole other dimension to what we do."

 

"It might take newer skaters years to come to some of the realizations you'd need to bring to it. It just isn't very realistic to wait for it to come on its own." Yuuri holds his cooling tea between both hands. "I think, if we could help them find more within their skating than just points and medals...I mean, which isn't to say that technique isn't important!" The sudden change in demeanor from contemplative to frantic is dramatic: "Technique is absolutely important!"

 

"But there's love to think about as well."

 

Love?

 

"Yeah." Yuuri carefully recovers his composure, with some help from Viktor, stroking his back. "Love of the sport. Love of the art. I think that if we can help others tap into the passions that burn inside them....."

 

"Wow! So poetic!"

 

"Hush, you." Yuuri places two fingers on Viktor's lips. Viktor happily lapses into silence. "I mean that it would breathe some real life into what we do on the ice. A better, more vibrant kind of art."

 

When it comes to art, Yuuri would know -- his years of training on the ice have been bolstered along by nearly two decades of cross-training in ballet. He's been tutored under the wing of world-renowned dancer Minako Okukawa, who now resides in their shared home town of Hasetsu.

 

 

_[INSET GRAPHIC: Young Yuuri at the barre, supervised by Minako.]_

 

 

"She taught me that there's so much more you can do, that it doesn't have to be just going through the motions--" Yuuri pauses. "Did I say that right? Going through the motions? I think that was the saying." Viktor frowns in consideration.

 

"I thought it was 'movements', 'going through the movements'."

 

"Are you sure?"

 

"Well, not anymore, I'm not. One moment, can we look this up?"

 

And so go their Sundays.

 

"When we aren't practicing or spending time with Makkachin, that's what we do. Toss around ideas, mostly, and talk about the future."

 

"There's so much possibility," Viktor says. "Did you know I used to be afraid? And yet, now it doesn't feel like the end. I will miss it when the time comes, but it doesn't mean it's no longer a part of me. It's the start of something new."

 

Sounds exciting.

 

"I think so." Yuuri idly tucks a stray bit of hair behind Viktor's ear. "Whatever lies ahead of us, I know we'll be fine. We'll be there to hold each other up, and we have our dream."

 

 

_[CLOSING IMAGE, FULL PAGE: Materials: black matte backdrop, violet velvet drapery, silver elements. Yuuri in ensemble from Di Vanagi Winter 2016 collection, framed center and facing away from camera in ending pose of 'Yuri on Ice' program. Viktor Nikiforov in 'Chevalier' Spring 2017 ensemble in half kneel, arms protective about Yuuri's waist, across his back.]_


End file.
